Amra
Nova Neom?
In November of 2008, just after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh visited the London School of Economics to open a new building. While there, the Queen asked some of the economists about the on-going international financial crisis: “Why did nobody notice it?”
In 2009, the British academy answered the question on why the greatest minds at the time failed to predict the crash with the famous line: “[it] was principally a failure of the collective imagination of many bright people, both in this country and internationally, to understand the risks to the system as a whole.”1
In the Arab world, the brightest minds suffer from the exact opposite: there is too much imagination. And thanks to AI, we can render these dreams very easily (just like the recent Citadel teleferique project). The main question becomes: can these dreams face financial reality?
When Saudi Arabia announced NEOM nearly a decade ago, I wasn’t surprised to see the immediate backlash by engineers and architects (and human rights activists) at the Line project. The country does have the money to spend, but would the project work? I, like many others, was skeptical about the Line, wishing they would drop it, and the Trojena, the ski resort in the mountains (for the Winter Olympics!?). The Oxagon was the only part that actually made more sense than all the rest.
This brings me to my question about our brightest minds in charge of the project: did they trade off their courage for imagination? Were they too scared to admit that the project would never work?
Talking of fear, this reminds me of the urban legend of how the Moscow metro ended up with a literal circle line: the story goes that when the engineers were showing the blueprints to the underground metro to Stalin, the General secretary put a glass of water which left a circular mark on the map. The engineers were too scared to say anything that they went ahead and built it.
(one can imagine what Neom’s consultants left on the map of Saudi Arabia when they came up with the Line)
Or worse: was imagination replaced with greed? Seriously, was no consultant on the project willing to speak out and be honest about the fact that the project was too ridiculous to pull off? Was the pay check too good to give up?
I think this video clearly sums up the role of the consultants to the project:
Thankfully the Line was first scaled down from 170km to 3km then cancelled altogether.2
I recommend reading the Financial Times’ visual investigation on the matter: https://ig.ft.com/saudi-neom-line/
Now, in Jordan, we have another ambitious (white elephant?) project of our own: AMRA.
Ex Nihilo Planning
In video games, like strategy and city building games, if one fails to beat the game, one can always restart the game and do it better. Not in life: there is no reset button. We live and suffer from an accumulation of mistakes and the unwillingness to listen to the brightest minds.
Except of course when it comes to building a new colony or a new city from scratch in the desert.
I was very skeptical of the proposed ‘New city’ when it was first announced, right around the same time as NEOM; and just like many of us, there were many dreamt up conspiracy theories then (and now). I wrote about it here:
Now the idea of Amra is growing on me (despite having the Social Security Investment Fund buy up lands at 30% discount right off the bat for ~170 mil JODs: why did they rush to buy those lands? was it Black Friday?).
Unlike other projects, this one isn’t rushed nor does it have big ambitions. It is expected to be built up over a long period of time, a quarter of a century to be exact. The most important aspects of building the city are somewhat covered (Green, sustainable, access to water and energy).
The first phase will include a Football Stadium, a Theme Park, and an Exhibition Centre.
I like the concept of it being an ‘Entertainment City’ in the desert (maybe the first phase should be called Las Amras).
I am not into football, so I can’t comment much on that, but the idea of having a dedicated theme park is fascinating.
So, if the dear reader would indulge me further, I just want to share some personal recommendations based on others’ mistakes and hopefully would be read by those in charge of the project:
Build a real highway
Every project has to acclimate and take into consideration the local culture. In a standard highway in Europe, you only have highways and barriers (just like how a bowling alley has side barriers for beginners). In Jordan we drive at the hardest (sometimes deadly) setting.
A standard Jordanian highway, take the airport road for example, would have a strawberry stand, a tea/coffee stand, a bus stop, a gas station, cars overtaking you from the right and then slowing down 50% below the speed limit when they spot a camera, people crossing a six lane highway while the pedestrian bridge is a few meters away, and cars double parked in a no parking zone near the highway exit.
To avoid such a mess, the Amra-Amman highway needs to be designed in a way to make it comfortable and safe for us and tourists to drive in and reach Amra/Theme Park in a happy state of mind.
Use the Jordanian Securities Market
Readers should know how I like to promote the Amman Stock Exchange and for it to be used to issue bonds or new shares (IPO). If investors are considering building a theme park, they can try to issue bonds/shares right here. And the share certificates can become memorabilia like when Disney built the theme Disneyland in Paris (known as Euro Disney).
Side note: Euro Disney has an interesting financial history of its own. Disney USA issued bonds to finance the construction of Disney land in 1990, took Eurodisney public and later took it private again.
Be different
Some speculated that the theme park will be built by Six Flags as they are already invested in the region. If true, why build something that is already available. Why not something completely original?
It was also suggested before to build a Star Trek theme park in Aqaba (number 10).
I would go for something that could capture the imagination of the Arab world. Take Sinbad as a character for example. Yes he is allegedly Omani, but I am sure we can invite Omani consultants (or investors) to help design a theme park around Sinbad and his many travels (like Pirates of the Caribbean). If the investors decide to publicly list it, they should issue share certificates with the Sinbad character on it and shareholders can get special perks like a discount or access to VIP rides or skip the line or something.
Fun fact: The French 🇫🇷 🧀🙈 decided to rebel against EuroDisney by building a theme park nearby inspired by a French character: Asterix.
Use courageous and smart consultants
When looking to build the Disney Park in the1950s, Walt Disney used the Standford Research Institute (the same institute that invented the detergent Tide and the Magnetic ink character recognition for cheques). We too should use the best and brightest out there to help design the park. We don’t want the park becoming another Jubeiha.
[for the Exhibition centre: I personally prefer it were to be delayed a bit more. It is true that Amman doesn’t have an official one as we keep jumping between the one on the airport road and Mecca Mall. I personally think it would fit better in Abdali]
End of the Road
Stoics are very much like prudent financiers who are very careful about their investments. Being a stoic means not invest too much of one’s emotions in dreams in order to avoid disappointment.
Amra looks nice on paper. I pray it does achieve what those imagined it would. But I remain cautiously optimistic.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Interesting article on Saudi Arabia’s tourism dream: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/middle-east/saudi-arabia/saudi-arabia-tourism-dream/
My take on the Saudi Tourist numbers:
